… making technology successful …
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We can help organizations of all kinds to make technology successful. Please read on to see how we can help you. Or click on the type of organization to jump forward.
Making technology successful for user organizations
Introduction
If you're an IT manager in a user organization, you're under pressure from all sides. You've got vendors demonstrating some exciting stuff, you've got staff demanding to use the latest stuff, and you've got business users demanding system features and levels of productivity that you just can't achieve with the tools and methods you're using at the moment. Furthermore, some of the systems you're running at the moment are so old, they're being maintained by kids that weren't born when the systems were first developed - and who knows how they will behave at the millennium. (Yes, the kids will get drunk and fall over.)
But you're already at the limit of your capacity to assimilate new stuff. Everything new has a learning curve attached, and you can't release people from their current workload for that much training. Tools that are supposed to increase productivity will probably be lucky to avoid a reduction in productivity in the first project, although they should pay back later. And you have to think about the interfaces and interactions between all the new stuff - every new product or technique entails further coordination efforts. Major technical advances will require changes in IT architectures, and perhaps also the job/career structures of your department.
So the cost of ownership is far higher than the price demanded by the vendors.
There is also the difficult question of getting the timing and sequencing right. You may have a firm conviction that - say - Component-Based Development is the way of the future, but when will the products be mature enough for your organization to use successfully on your projects?
Benefits
Our consultancy practice aims to help people in organizations to get on top of technological change. Everyone benefits from this.
For the IT manager |
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For IT staff |
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For the organization as a whole |
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For the organization's suppliers |
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Solution
For each significant technological advance, our solution has the following elements:
Management |
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Planning |
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Project Activities |
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Organizational Learning |
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Infrastructure |
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Available Services
veryard projects can call on several highly experienced technology consultants to offer the following services:
Facilitated planning service |
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Technology change seminar |
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Trouble-shooting |
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Mentoring |
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Next Action
For related material, please visit the veryard projects home page. |
If you share our concern for the successful deployment and exploitation of new technology, please contact us to discuss further. | ||
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Making technology successful for product vendors
Introduction
How do you deliver your products to your customers? Do you physically ship hardware, software discs and manuals to the customer, or do you transmit software and documentation via the Internet? Do you send round an engineer to install and configure the system? Do you provide training? Do you provide consultancy and technical support?
Okay, now let's look at the results of your delivery process. How good are your customers at making effective use of your product? And what impact does that have on your future sales?
We hear many sad stories from product developers and suppliers, of technologically brilliant products that fail to take off. There are always a few large organizations that will buy one copy to experiment with, or for a small pilot project. But for some reason they never buy any more copies. Or perhaps one customer leaps in with a large, exciting but badly planned project, buys a hundred copies, and has your best people running around like crazy trying to make the impossible work. You don't dare walk away from the customer, because if the project falls apart it will cause bad headlines in the trade press - it's always the technology that takes the blame for poor management.
Some product vendors rely on superhuman efforts by support consultants, who somehow manage to charm and sort out all sorts of problems that interfere with the effective use of the product. But that limits your product success to the number of these heroes you can recruit and train. And you don't even want to think about the burnout and divorce rates for such heroes.
Some product vendors work through distributors, agents, OEMs and other third parties. This doesn't resolve the problems - if anything it makes them more complex, as there are now more people in the chain capable of disrupting the smooth delivery and use of your product.
Stakeholders
Within a single customer organization, many people demand or want things from your product, and/or make decisions which affect your product:
Furthermore, the stakeholders work with a range of time horizons.
To help your customers use your products effectively, you need to be able to negotiate expectations with all of these people.
Benefits
In an important sense, the delivery process doesn't really end until the customer has got the benefits of your product. How the customer uses your product may not be your responsibility, but it is certainly your concern.
If you have an effective and repeatable process for delivering the product and helping your customers use it effectively, this benefits both you and your customers.
For the product development team |
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For the product support team |
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For the supplier organization |
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For distribution agents and other intermediaries |
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For customers and product users |
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Solution
Our solution has the following elements:
Management |
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Planning |
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Project Activities |
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Organizational Learning |
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Infrastructure |
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Available Services
veryard projects can call on several highly experienced technology consultants to offer the following services:
Facilitated planning service |
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Technology change seminar |
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Delivery process assessment |
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Trouble-shooting |
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Mentoring |
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Next Action
For related material, please visit the veryard projects home page. |
If you share our concern for the successful deployment and exploitation of new technology, please contact us to discuss further. | ||
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Making technology successful for R&D organizations
Introduction
In the research and development of new technology, the technical quality of the results provides no guarantee of successful deployment and exploitation. This section outlines a management approach for improving the chances of success.
Context
In many technological research and development (R&D) projects, there is an organizational or contractual interface between the R&D team and the organization responsible for evaluating and exploiting the research results.
This interface is often managed as a wall, over which the research results are tossed at the end of the R&D project. Although some informal contacts may be maintained between the development team and the deployment team(s), and there may be some formal synchronization at the management level, the channels for technology transfer are inefficient and usually ineffective. We see this as one of the most common reasons for transfer failure.
Furthermore, the deployment team(s) often have little opportunity to review the research until the research is complete. The technology transfer process is regarded as a purely one-way communication: the research team speaks (definitively or optimistically) and the deployment team listens (deferentially or critically).
The approach described here, therefore, requires the R&D team and the deployment team(s) to collaborate on the technology transfer process, not just at the end of the research, but with some level of planning and preparation running in parallel with the research activities.
Benefits
To the R&D team |
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To the deployment team |
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To the R&D organization |
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To the funding organization(s) |
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Solution
Our solution has the following elements:
Management |
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Planning |
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Project Activities |
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Organizational Learning |
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Infrastructure |
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Available Services
veryard projects can call on several highly experienced technology consultants to offer the following services:
Facilitated planning service |
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Technology change seminar |
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Trouble-shooting |
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Mentoring |
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The key variables are the duration of the research project, the number of people and organizations involved, and the complexity and novelty of the technology. A typical consultancy package for a medium-sized project could involve:
Next Action
For related material, please visit the veryard projects home page. |
If you share our concern for the successful deployment and exploitation of new technology, please contact us to discuss further. | ||
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This page last updated on December 1st, 1998.
Copyright © 1997, 1998 Richard Veryard